Marquez takes win as Vinales cops penalty

The results sheet at the end of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix is hardly a reflection of the intense on-track dramas which unfolded during the 22-lap feature race. As has been the case for the previous four events, Marc Marquez (Lenovo Ducati) took the holeshot from pole position, chased by his brother Alex (Gresini Ducati) from the middle of the front row. 

Determined to capitalise on his slim lead in the title chase, an aggressive move from Alex resulted in contact between the two brothers in the middle of the first turn, contact which broke the left half of Marc’s rear aero off his GP25. It was the VR46 Ducati of Franky Morbidelli who made the most of the melee, drafting past the duelling brothers to take the lead of the grand prix. And with the nine-time world champion team owner looking on from pitlane, the Italian put his head down, put in the fastest lap of the race, and crossed the line to start lap three almost three-quarters of a second clear of Marc and Alex.

Morbidelli’s teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) was also looking strong as he soon moved ahead of Alex to take P3, but it was an impatient move by the younger Marquez brother to reclaim the place which speared them both off track and earned Alex a long-lap penalty. 

As all of this was unfolding at the front, Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) – who started 11th on the grid after crashing in Q2 – was quietly making the most of his Ducati’s top-end power and had muscled his way up to P3. Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM), likewise, was benefitting from a strong start; from sixth on the grid he kept his nose clean during the early stages, so when Bagnaia made his move on Marc for second place, a couple of fastest laps from the Spaniard meant he was well and truly in podium contention, in a close fourth.  

By lap six, Bagnaia had reduced Morbidelli’s 1.2 second lead down to seven tenths, but he was bringing Marc along with him, who drafted past his teammate to retake P2 at the end of the start-finish straight. But the big surprise came when Vinales was also through on the Italian a couple of turns later. And as his speed and confidence in his RC16 grew, the surprises continued as he outbraked Marc Marquez into Turn 1 to start lap 10. 

It would get even better for the KTM rider, who was now all over the rear wheel of Morbidelli, and he took just one lap to slipstream past the Ducati rider to take the lead of a Grand Prix for the first time in over 12 months. Marc followed the Spaniard through on Morbidelli, who went from leading the previous seven laps of the race to now defending third place from Bagnaia. And it was a scrap by the two VR46 Academy riders during the next handful of turns which ultimately meant the race was now essentially a two-way fight between Vinales’ KTM and Marquez’ Ducati.

With Marc looking content to sit behind Vinales, the race started to settle down, though signs of Vinales struggling to get his KTM stopped and turned began to appear. Yet another strong showing from LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco saw him now locked in a battle for fourth with Morbidelli, as Bagnaia circulated in a relatively safe third place. 

The mistake that allowed Marc Marquez through to the lead came from Vinales at Turn 6 on lap 16. And then with clear track ahead of him, Marc – who later admitted he had been keeping a two or three-tenths margin in reserve for the end of the race – reeled off two consecutive fastest laps to put himself over a second clear of the struggling Vinales, with Bagnaia well over two seconds behind the KTM rider. 

With the crash out of the lead two weeks earlier in COTA firmly in his mind, there was no such dramas for the eight-time world champ in Qatar, as he held firm at the front to take his first win in Qatar in 11 years, 1.8secs clear of Vinales and 4.5secs clear of Bagnaia. 

Morbidelli won the battle for fourth from Zarco, with the two Gresini Ducati riders of Fermin Aldeguer and Alex Marquez sixth and seventh respectively, the latter recovering well from two bouts of contact with other riders as well as a long-lap penalty.  

The Qatar Grand Prix did mark the competitive race return of reigning world champ Jorge Martin, and while there were some brief signs of the talent and speed he’s capable of, a crash for the luckless factory Aprilia rider resulted in yet more injuries in the form a broken rib.

While Marquez’ victory represents the 21st consecutive GP victory for Ducati, who is now just one shy of Honda’s record run in the heady days of Mick Doohan’s dominance in the late 1990s, the ride of the day must go to Maverick Vinales who managed to rise above all of the KTM’s well-documented struggles to finish second behind Marquez and give his Tech3 team a long-awaited podium just days after team boss Herve Poncharal’s birthday.

“Unreal, fantastic,” was how Pocharal described the performance. “Fantastic for racing, fantastic for the project.” 

But the celebrations in the Tech3 garage were short-lived. Vinales was handed a 16-second penalty post-race due to low tyre pressure. That demoted him to 14th place, giving Bagnaia second and Morbidelli third.

Now on 123 points, the result puts Marc firmly back in charge of the title chase, 17 points clear of his brother Alex (106pts) and 26 clear of Bagnaia (97pts). The VR46 pairing of Mordbidelli (78pts) and Di Giannantonio (48pts) remain in fourth and fifth. A DNF from Aussie Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) drops him to 15th overall on 19 points. 

The series now heads to Europe for the Spanish GP at Jerez over 25–27 April.